MTV Gets Blamed for Violence

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, May 15, 1997

Music videos glamorize violence and weapons, and MTV is the main culprit, according to a study published yesterday in an American Medical Association journal.

"A significantly higher percentage of music videos aired on MTV contained one or more episodes of violence or weapon carrying than the videos aired on other networks," says the study in the May issue of the AMA's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

In total, the study says, violence occurs in nearly a quarter -- 22.4 percent -- of the videos on MTV, more than double the violence in videos on three other cable channels.

-- Of the videos analyzed, the two with the most acts of violence were the Guns 'N Roses video for "Don't Cry" and a Beastie Boys spoof video, "You Gotta Fight for Your Right." Weapons were most prevalent in an Anthrax video, "Hy Pro Glo." All were on MTV.

-- Whites were depicted engaging in violence and weapon carrying in proportion to their prevalence in the population. But blacks were significantly overrepresented as engaging in violence or carrying weapons.

-- Men were most frequently depicted behaving violently or carrying a weapon. But in 40.8 percent of the videos with violence, a woman was also portrayed engaging in it.

-- The videos with the strongest sexual content tended to be the least violent.

The study defined violence as "the overt expression of physical force or overt verbal abuse, with or without a weapon, against self or other, compelling action against one's will, resulting in pain, injury, or death."

That the study was conducted in 1994 could affect its credibility today. Some of the groups cited no longer are together, and there is no assurance that the study results would be duplicated in 1997.

Robert DuRant, a medical sociologist who headed the study at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said in a telephone interview that the lag was due to the time needed to analyze the videos and to prepare the study for publication.

DuRant said he doubted that the content of music videos has changed for the better since 1994.

There also may be an inherent problem in merely counting weapons. One of the videos cited was for a country song on CMT in which Clint Black was superimposed on an old Roy Rogers movie scene, and the two sang as they rode horses side by side. The report notes that they "are carrying traditional Western handguns in holsters; there is no portrayal of violence."

The study notes previous evidence linking aggressive behavior to violence in music videos. Because "violence among American youth is a significant public health problem," it says, musicians and the producers of music videos should eliminate violence and weapons from them. Networks such as MTV have a responsibility not to harm children, it says.

An accompanying editorial in the AMA publication is far harsher toward MTV than is the study itself.

"One safe conclusion is that MTV remains far too violent for the good of the nation's teenagers. . . . (MTV) bears a unique responsibility because it is so extraordinarily popular with young people," the editorial says.

"Yet, to date, to our knowledge, MTV executives have steadfastly refused to engage in any sort of dialogue with the pediatric medical community regarding the content of videos, programming, or advertising."

Carole Robinson, MTV senior vice president for communications, said, "We have not seen the study, but we have a very strong set of standards that we apply to all MTV programming, and VH1. . . . We do not air violent programming.

"I know for a fact that guns are not permitted on MTV videos presently. It's been that way for at least two years."

MTV has frequently run afoul of societal critics. In 1993, it was pressured into rescheduling its cartoon series "Beavis and Butt- head" to a later time period after a 5-year-old Ohio boy, allegedly inspired by the program, set fire to his bed, killing his 2-year-old sister.

MTV also hasn't complied with the television industry's voluntary system of content ratings for programming.